ZOQY

I enjoyed this book, the flavours of life in Beijing leapt off the page, and I like the style of writing. In fact Ann Mah (http://www.annmah.net/) described China in such a way that I wanted to book a flight to go and taste the local food delights for myself. There was just one thing I really didn’t like about this book though, and that was the actual book itself; the paperback cover is incredibly flimsy which meant I kept dropping the book and losing my page, and also the pages are very thin poor quality paper.
Paper quality aside, this book was a thoroughly enjoyable light read, and if you like reading about how expats cope in a foreign environment, food, and family dynamics, then you will definitely enjoy Kitchen Chinese.
This novel was kindly sent to Richard by Ann Mah who is a facebook friend of his.

Amazon Info:
Product Description

Isabelle Lee thinks she knows everything about Chinese cuisine. After all, during her Chinese-American childhood, she ate it every day. Isabelle may speak only “kitchen Chinese”—the familial chatter learned at her mother’s knee—but she understands the language of food. Now, in the wake of a career-ending catastrophe, she’s ready for a change—so she takes off for Beijing to stay with her older sister, Claire, whom she’s never really known, and finds a job writing restaurant reviews for an expat magazine. In the midst of her extreme culture shock, and the more she comes to learn about her sister’s own secrets, Isabelle can’t help but wonder whether coming to China was a mistake . . . or an extraordinary chance to find out who she really is.

About the Author

Ann Mah was born in Orange County, California, and lived in Beijing for four years, where she was the dining editor for a monthly English-language magazine. She writes regularly for the South China Morning Post, Condé Nast Traveler, the International Herald Tribune, and on her blog, www.annmah.net. Ann was awarded a James Beard Culinary Scholarship in 2005 and now lives in Paris, France.

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Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

This is a very fast  paced novel with a gripping plot. I”ve read a few of the other ‘Jack Reacher’ novels and this one lives up to the standard I’ve got used to from Lee Child. There are a few gruesome parts but nothing to stop me sleeping at night. Some poeople may find them at bit harse, but then so is life. All in all, this is an excellent read that grips you from the start.

Amazon Book Description
New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn’t.

In the next few tense seconds Reacher will make a choice–and trigger an electrifying chain of events in this gritty, gripping masterwork of suspense by #1 New York Times bestseller Lee Child.

Susan Mark was the fifth passenger. She had a lonely heart, an estranged son, and a big secret. Reacher, working with a woman cop and a host of shadowy feds, wants to know just how big a hole Susan Mark was in, how many lives had already been twisted before hers, and what danger is looming around him now.

Because a race has begun through the streets of Manhattan in a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. Susan Mark’s plain little life was critical to dozens of others in Washington, California, Afghanistan . . . from a former Delta Force operator now running for the U.S. Senate, to a beautiful young woman with a fantastic story to tell–and to a host of others who have just one thing in common: They’re all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or maybe just enough to get him killed.

In a novel that slams through one hairpin surprise after another, Lee Child unleashes a thriller that spans three decades and gnaws at the heart of America . . . and for Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, it’s a mystery with only one answer–the kind that comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye.
About the Author
Lee Child is the author of thirteen Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, The Hard Way, and #1 bestsellers Bad Luck and Trouble and Nothing to Lose. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in forty territories. All titles have been optioned for major motion pictures. Child, a native of England and a former television director, lives in New York City, where he is at work on his fourteenth Jack Reacher thriller.

Published on www.zoqy.net

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This a a rather lightweight novel, the sub plots are weak and unrewarding and the main plot is very weedy with a bland out come. Not worth reading unless someone gives it to you for free. I read a number of reviews of this novel and most are negative but to point out that other novels by Scott Turow have been very good, so if I see another one I will give Scoot Turow a second chance.

Amazon Product Description
Life would seem to have gone well for George Mason. His days as a criminal defence lawyer are long behind him. At fifty-nine, he has sat as a judge on the Court of Appeals in Kindle County for nearly a decade. Yet, when a disturbing rape case is brought before him, the judge begins to question the very nature of the law and his role within it. What is troubling George Mason so deeply? Is it his wife’s recent diagnosis? Or the strange and threatening emails he has started to receive? And what is it about this horrific case of sexual assault, now on trial in his courtroom, that has led him to question his fitness to judge? In “Limitations”, Scott Turow, the master of the legal thriller, returns to Kindle County with a page-turning entertainment that asks the biggest questions of all. Ingeniously, and with great economy of style, Turow probes the limitations not only of the law, but of human understanding itself.

About the Author
Scott Turow is the internationally renowned author of six bestselling novels about the law, from Presumed Innocent (1987) to Reversible Errors, as well as a work of non-fiction, Ultimate Punishment, which centres on the death penalty. His most recent book was the critically acclaimed wartime thriller, Ordinary Heroes. He lives with his family outside Chicago, where he is a partner in the international law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.

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I’ve been a fan of the T.V. series ‘The Inspector Lynley Mysteries’ but have never read any of the novels, so when I saw a copy of the this novel at an English language book swap meet in Ozonzac (Herault ~ 34) I decided to give it a try. I’m pleased to say I was not disappointed in the novel and it did not sour me to the T.V. series. The novel is well plotted and multi-faceted and shows the human and inhuman side of the characters very well. The only exception being Winston Nkata who seems to speaking some bizarre mocney ( fake cockney). Being a Londoner born and bred, I found it a bit silly. That aside the rest of the novel is an excellent read and draws you in to the emotions of Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers. The details about London are also very good and given the Elizabeth George is an American, she’s done a very good job getting the feel of London. I will be looking out for other Elizabeth George when I next go to the book swap.

Product Description

The police never suspected a serial killer was at large until they found the fourth murdered boy — the first white victim — his body draped over a tomb in a London graveyard. Suddenly a series of crimes and a potential public relations disaster have Scotland Yard on the defensive, scrambling to apprehend a maniac while avoiding accusations of racism.

Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley, distracted by concerns for his pregnant wife, has been assigned to the investigation, along with his disgraced partner, Barbara Havers, who’s fighting for her professional future. Winston Nkata — deservedly, if hastily, promoted to detective sergeant — is the black face who will speak to the media. But none of them can imagine the tenacity and ingenuity of the killer they seek . . . and no one is prepared for the savage, shocking instant when everything will change forever.

About the Author

Elizabeth George (http://www.elizabethgeorgeonline.com/) is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels of psychological suspense, one book of nonfiction, and two short-story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, and the MIMI, Germany’s prestigious prize for suspense fiction. She lives in Washington State.

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